Questionnaire survey was conducted in 265 secondary and tertiary medical institutions all around Inner Mongolia from July to November, 2015. The questionnaire concerned hospital category and scale, TB laboratory test items and quantity in 2014. Effective questionnaires from 154 hospitals were received, including 41 (82.0%, 41/50) tertiary and 113 (52.6%, 113/215) secondary medical institutions, and the overall response rate was 58.1% (154/265).

The performance rate of TB LAB tests in tertiary medical institutions was better than that in secondary ones. The performance rates of AFB test, culture test, molecular biological detection and interferon-gamma release assay carried out in tertiary medical institutions were 87.8% (36/41), 24.4% (10/41), 12.2% (5/41) and 31.7% (13/41) respectively, and those in secondary medical institutions were 31.9% (36/113), 9.7% (11/113), 1.8% (2/113) and 1.8% (2/113) respectively. The differences were significant (χ ²=37.83, P=0.000; χ ²=5.49, P=0.019; χ ²=7.54, P=0.006; χ ²=30.67, P=0.000). The performance of culture test in non-general hospital including 8 infectious disease hospitals (23.4%, 11/47) was better than that in general hospitals (9.3%, 10/107) with significant difference (χ ²=5.48, P<0.05). The situation of TB LAB tests performed in eight infectious diseases hospitals (3 secondary and 5 tertiary ones) was relatively better. The performance rates of AFB test, culture test, molecular biological detection and interferon-gamma release assay were 8/8, 7/8, 3/8 and 6/8 respectively.

As the foremost position for TB case finding, the performance of TB LAB in general hospitals should be improved further, no matter detection items, quantity or the application of new techniques.